Us Against the Crown
by noneee
Summary: AU. With a corrupt government destroying the world and his life falling to pieces, Kiba tries to give meaning to a life that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Bad summary, but read!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I had writers block a little while I was writing my other fic "The Last Hokage" (which you should go read and review!), so I decided to write this short (for me at least) intro to another fic. It's an AU story and the characters may be a little OOC but that's because it's more of just my original thing with the Naruto names instead of my own. The AU is my own little universe that I just kind of mess around with in some short stories although you don't get any insight into it really in this short. I'm not really sure if I'm going to continue this as I want to work on "The Last Hokage" (read it!) as that is more of an actual fan fiction. Leave some feedback on this fic if you want, although I'd appreciate it even more if you reviewed me other fics as well!

Bonus if you can tell me where I got the title from :P

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.

This is from Kiba's POV.

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**Us Against the Crown**

The ocean always seems so angry; the storm constantly raging on. Maybe thats why I'm always so drawn to it. So I can watch the swells crash down in the distance and feel the biting wind whip sand into my face. So I can see the current suck the little pieces of wood I throw out, dragging them down into the abyss below. So I can feel the bitter froth the ocean spits up at me chill my feet, even though I'm more then 50 meters from the water line. I'm always the only one here on the beach. Everyone else is to afraid to come near it. My mom would kill me if she knew I was here right now. She's always been terrified of the ocean because of what it did to my dad. But I come here nonetheless.

If I asked my English teacher or my counselor why I'm so drawn to this hostile place they would tell me that it's because I view it as some metaphor to my own life or some bullshit like that. I've never been a fan of school though, so I'd never ask them anyway. If you asked me why I always came here I'd probably just tell you it's because I need to be alone. I need some time to be alone to think, and this is the only place I can ever be truly alone. Only a few people ever dare to come here. My dog, Akamaru, is one of them. He'll come and keep me company sometimes, let me pet him while I talk about nothing in particular, or play chicken with the constantly assaulting waves. But in the end he's just as afraid, and he'll just go running back to the house to sleep in his safe, comfortable bed.

_She's_ one of the only other ones that dares to come out here for more then a few seconds. It seems paradox to her nature, as she's afraid of just about everything else, but she comes out here nonetheless. I'd like to think that it's because I'm here, that she feels protected and safe with me, even with the ocean trying to attack us from only a few meters away. I don't know if that's true or not, but like I said, its what I like to believe.

"I thought I'd find you here," she says as she slowly sits down next to me. I smile weakly but keep looking out into the ocean. I know whats sitting next to me now. Her long black hair blowing in the wind. Her fragile yet beautiful body looking like it may get blown away by the fierce wind. Her odd, cloudy white eyes starring off into the same fearsome ocean that my savage black slitted pupils are.

"Have you been here all day?" She asks, already knowing full well the answer. I nod my head but continue to look out onto the horizon. I can feel her getting worried about my unresponsiveness, a sign to her of my current state of depression. I'll make small talk with her, if only to relieve her worry a little.

"So how was school today, Hinata?" I ask, finally tearing my eyes from the ocean and setting them on her. Like I predicted, she starring at me and her eyes are filled with worry. I don't want her to be worried about me; some innocent girl like her shouldn't have to worry about some messed up kid like me.

"It was fine," She replied, "Although it feels kind of strange without you being there."

I get a small laugh out of this. "You should be used to me not being in school by now," I joke back. I haven't been to school for about a week now, having been suspended for fighting. I need to work on controlling my temper, or at least that's what everyone tells me. I know I should, I've been suspended several times before for fighting, although this time was different. I get in fights a lot just for the hell of it; because some kid tries to poke fun at me or they just do something I don't like. But this time I had a legitimate reason, or at least legitimate enough to verify the ten day suspension and possible expulsion to myself.

"You know Naruto'd be mad if he knew you were here with me," I tell her, getting serious again.

"Yeah, I know," She whispers back, barely audible over the deafening crashing of the waves on the beach. "It's okay though, he never comes out here anyway."

Although what she says is true I'm always worried that on an outside chance he will show up and catch her with me. I hate knowing that what I do could destroy the relationships shes worked so hard to obtain. It's always been like that though, I've always just been a thorn in her side, slowing picking away at everything she holds dear in her life. Yet she still comes out here to be with me. It gives me a little hope that someone likes me enough that they would risk things that are important to them just to be with me.

Thats not to say other people don't like me, just they do in a different way. I've probably portrayed myself as sort of a loner right now, which I really am not. Recently thats sort of how I felt but it typically isn't me. I have plenty of friends and acquaintances in real life that 'like' me, just its not the same kind of like. All those other relationships and friendships I have are just shallow connections I keep so that I can have someone to hang out with on weekends, or talk to when I'm bored in class. They would all abandon me the second things started to look bad or trouble started to brew. It's not like I care, I would probably do the same thing to them. But she's stuck with me through it all.

I can't really figure out why though. Maybe it's because of my dog. She's always wanted a dog but hasn't been able to get one because her dad's allergic. Maybe she just spends time with me so she can pet Akamaru when she's feeling down. That's a pretty crappy reason though, there are plenty of other far more normal that have dogs that she could be friends with, but its the only one I can think of.

"Your mom would be pretty mad if she knew you were out here as well," she tells me. I know thats true, but like Naruto, she never comes out here. I think she knows this is where I am but her intense phobia of this water prevents her from coming out and dragging me away from my sacred place. I feel kind of bad for being so blatantly rebellious towards her, but I don't think I could stop myself from coming here even if I tried.

I've always felt kind of bad for my mother. She's been through a lot and I've been of no help to her. First dad gets swept away and shes left alone, widowed, with two kids. Then I start acting up in school, getting into fights and getting suspensions. And then to put the final nail in the coffin my sister, her last hope at having a normal family, runs off after shes finished with school with no warning, to work on some secretive project she doesn't tell any of us about. All of this has left my mom rather beaten up and broken. So she displaces all this sorrow and rage she has on me. I feel like I kind of deserve it but I hate it nonetheless.

"So is your trial soon?" Hinata asks me, the worry still highly evident in her voice. She's referring to my appeal trial about my suspension of course. I think the school system has finally had it with me, and this time they are threatening to kick me out for good. I wouldn't really mind if I did get kicked out, I hate school after all and get nothing out of it, but everyone else seems to care. They're all worried were this is going to lead me later in life. What am I going to do without a diploma? What's going to be my purpose in life now that I've diverged from the norm of what was expected of me.

Although I don't mind what happens in the end I'll try my best to stay in if only for Hinata. I hate seeing her worry about me and this trial has done nothing but make her do that. Again, I can't see why she stays by me, when all I bring her is worry. I won't complain though, if she wants to put with me there's no reason for me to argue.

We both sit there for a while now, starring out into the ocean, getting soaked by the spray. "Have you ever wondered what's out there?" I ask her. It's something I've been thinking about a lot recently. If there's nothing for me here, maybe there is something for me out there, past this storm. For a while in school I tried to do good so I could become an engineer or something like that, and build something to get us off this island. But I gave up, it always seems so hopeless. Legitimately intelligent people have tried and failed before me, to build a boat to sail past it or construct something that can fly like the birds to soar over it. But they've all failed. The ocean is too fierce, it drags the boats under before they're even a hundred meters off of shore, and the winds are too mighty, the atmosphere to low, not even the birds try to fly over the ocean.

"Sort of," Hinata responds to my question. This doesn't surprise me, it's natural to wonder what's beyond what you can't see, but she's not the adventuresome type. Even if she doesn't like it here, here is safe and known, not the dangerous unknown that lies beyond the sea. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," I reply. "It's just something I wonder about sometimes."

"Oh," she says back. She won't dig deeper, there's no reason for her to here.

I'm starting to get depressed the more I stare out into the ocean. Maybe over there the government is so corrupt. Maybe over there the water is calm. Maybe over there people are happy. I have to pull my gaze away from the sea after a while, it starts to take too much out of me. I let my gaze settle on the wet sand and on Hinata. I come to the conclusion that even if I could leave I wouldn't. Not as long as she's here. She's what's keeping me sane.

"Kiba, there's something I have to tell you." Hinata whispers. She's serious now and she's looking me right in the eyes.

"Yeah?"

She stays quite for a moment, picking her words. I start to become afraid. I don't want to know what she has to say if she can't even think of a way to say it.

"Kiba..." she whispers again, still unsure of what to say.

"Yeah?"

"Kiba, I'm moving."

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So like I said, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this, although you can review if you want. If I do continue, an actual story will develop and it won't be some endless angsty drabble.

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	2. Chapter 2

Well I decided to update this at least once more. This first chapter got an abysmal amount of hits, although a decent amount of reviews for the amount of hits it got. I guess my summary sucks.

Well, please read and review!

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Waves continued to crash down, the frigid water flowing up the beach, chilling my feet. I sat in silence now, unsure of what to say. Hinata sits next to me, silent as well. 

"When?" I ask quietly, she can barely hear me over the noise of the waves thundering down on the beach. I don't look at her, I can't, I don't know what would happen if I did. I just stare down at my feet, at the water rushing up, washing tiny bits of sand and pebbles in between my bare toes.

"In a week," Hinata responds even softer then me. I can feel her eyes on me, looking to see my reaction. I hear her shift her position, bringing her knees up to her chest so she can hug her legs. She does this a lot; I guess it's comforting for her. "We're moving to the west coast. My dad says he got a better job there and the community is better."

"Oh," Is all I can think to say. All I can think about is how it's unfair for her to leave me like this; I hate myself for thinking this but still, I can't stop these thoughts from going through my head. I know this must be hard for her too, I can tell by the tone of her voice.

I find myself hating her dad even more. I know that chances are he really did get a better job, and maybe there is a better community, but I can't help feeling that he has an ulterior motive. I know her dad's view of me, and it's not positive to say the least. We've been friends for a long time. When we were young she used to live right next door to me and we would spend all of our free time together. When she came home a couple of times with cuts and bruises and once a broken arm, her dad decided I was a bad influence and they moved. They moved when Hinata and I were just eight; that time they just moved across town, to a house that was too far away for me to walk whenever I had a free moment.

I bet her dad had counted on us just forgetting about each other. After all we were both just eight years old, we had only been friends for a few years; we couldn't have developed that strong a bond, right? Much to her fathers dismay we remained friends though. We didn't get to see each other as much as we lived farther away, but there was still school and we could meet up in town from time to time. Her dad knew of course, it wasn't like either of us tried to hide it that we hung out together; it wasn't exactly a scandal or anything.

"So have you told Naruto yet?" I ask, deciding to break the silence that had encompassed the last few minutes. Naruto was her boyfriend. She had liked him for a while, since sometime when we were eleven or so. Hinata is a shy girl though, and she didn't get around to telling him how she felt until sometime a year or two ago, when she was sixteen. They worked well together, I know he treated her well and he made her happy. He didn't like me very much though. For much the same reason Hinata's dad didn't like me, Naruto didn't like me. Bad things tended to happen when I'm around and since Naruto was very protective of Hinata, he didn't like that.

"No," Hinata replied, looking away from me now. "He's out of town visiting his relatives for the weekend, I haven't seen him yet since I've heard."

"Oh," is all I can think of to say still. I feel kind of special because I'm one of the first people Hinata has told, although that doesn't make up for the fact that she's actually leaving. Finally getting enough courage to turn and look at her, I lift my head slowly and peer to my left. Like I thought she's hugging her legs to her chest and her chin is propped on her knees, her eyes starring out to sea. I can't tell for sure, but I think she's crying a little, although it may just be the ocean spray wetting her face.

She's depressed. Even if she isn't crying it's obvious to me that she's feeling really down. I have to do something to cheer her up, although it's hard to do that when you're feeling even lower then them.

"Hinata you want to do something tonight?" I ask her. Naruto would be mad if he knew I was going to bring his girlfriend out, hell he would be mad if he knew she was even sitting here on the beach next to me. But since he's not in town I don't have much to worry about, he won't catch us. "We can go into town or something, maybe get some dinner or just walk around, something like that."

"S-sure," she stammers in response. Even if she didn't want to go she's too nice to say no, especially to me. "I've got to go now though, my dad thinks I just went to the neighbors to get some milk."

I get a short laugh out of this; it's not often that she'll lie to her dad like this. It makes me feel good that she'll do something that's so difficult to her just so she can tell me something. "So I'll pick you up later then." I say as she starts to get up.

"Yeah, I'll see you then," she says back as she gets up and starts to walk away, giving me a weak smile as she does so.

I watch her walk away until she passes over the hill that blocks the beach from the rest of the town and disappears. I turn back to the sea now, needing something that will get these horrible feelings and thoughts out of my mind.

Unlike her I have no one who's going to be worrying about me back at home. My sister ran off and I don't even know where she is anymore. My mom told me to stay in the house, although I bet she kind of hopes that I'll just get sucked out to sea. She'll yell at me when I get back, most people would probably mistake that for worry, although I know she's just venting all her frustrations on me.

I sit and watch the ocean for a while, waiting till the tide starts to rise and it becomes too dangerous, even for me, to stay out there. I get up from my position on the beach, groaning as I stretch out the tight muscles in my legs and back. The sun is starting to set now. As I turn and walk over the small hill I can see the giant ball of orange approaching the horizon in the west.

I make my way over the hill and to the street. I have to hop a small fence that they set up to prevent people from going to the ocean before I'm back on the street, on my way home. I live about a mile and a half away from this place, about twenty minutes on foot if I don't hurry. Hinata lives about three quarters of a mile in the opposite direction, making the total distance between our two houses about two and a quarter miles.

I arrive back at my house just as the sun sets completely, casting the world into darkness. I'm surprised when I find that my mom's car isn't in the driveway, she rarely goes out. All that's left on the small strip is my car, some junker that my mom originally bought for my sister when she was the good child, before she ran off. When she disappeared though, I inherited the heap of metal.

I walk up my front steps and fumble with my keys as I open the door. That's when I realize even if I wanted to, I couldn't drive the car and go pick up Hinata; my mom took my keys. Whenever I got suspended or in a lot of trouble she would take away the keys and just about everything else that had any value to me. I'm not sure if it's because she thought it would teach me a lesson or if she just wanted to torture me. Whatever, I would figure something out. I knew she hid some keys somewhere in the house; I would just have to find them.

As I open the door Akamaru comes bounding from his comfortable spot on the couch and comes to greet me at the door. He licks at my feet and jumps on my legs as I close the door behind me and walk down the short entrance way and into the kitchen. The house is dark and I fumble on the wall searching for the light switch. Before I can find the elusive switch, someone grabs me from behind and pulls me away from the wall.

Instinctively I arch my back to try and get away and slam my elbow back into the unknown person's stomach. Now free I stumble over to the wall and switch on the light before taking a fighting stance, ready for another attack.

"Kiba! What the hell did you do that for?" As the light flickers on I find myself face to face with my sister. She's clutching her stomach now, my hit obviously hurting her. I relax from my fighting stance and grimace at her, both annoyed and shocked that she's home.

"Sorry, I didn't exactly expect someone to try and abduct me like that," I say bitterly as I walk away from her and get something to eat from the fridge. "Why the hell did you do that anyway, did you think I was a robber or something?"

"I thought I'd just surprise you, I haven't been home in a while, I thought you'd be happy to see me," My sister replied, walking over to lean on the counter, watching me grab some jerky from the fridge. "Although based on your tone that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Yeah, well, you can't just run off for a couple years and come back and expect a warm welcome," I spit back at her. I take a bite out of my jerky and chew it thoroughly as I sit down at the kitchen table. I was at the beach almost all day and hadn't eaten anything and had gotten quite an appetite by this point. Akamaru is at my feet now, eyeing my food hungrily, cocking his head slightly trying to look cute so he might get some. I rip off a piece for him and he grabs the piece of meat and walks over to the corner and starts chewing on it.

"You still don't have to be so bitter," she says, still leaning on the counter watching me eat. She sits there for a while as I finish eating, not saying anything else.

"What are you doing home anyway?" I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me.

"I was in town, I thought I would drop by and say hi," she responds. It's not a good enough answer for me but I don't probe deeper, I'm not in the mood to get into an argument with her. I get up, having finished eating, and head to my room. Before I leave the kitchen my sister stops me though. "You mind not telling anyone else I'm here?"

"Yeah, whatever, I don't see why anyone would care," I respond and continue to go to my room. My bedroom is incredibly messy, I just throw my clothes on the floor whenever I change and Akamaru had dragged many of his toys in here, adding to the layer of junk covering the floor. Swiftly, I change out of my dirty cloths and into something that wasn't covered in salt and sand. I don't care for fashion so changing doesn't take long and soon I'm back in the kitchen, looking at my sister.

"Hana, can I borrow your keys to the car?" I ask. It would be easier to just take her set them tearing apart the house looking for mine. Hopefully she'll just give them to me, but knowing her it won't go that easily.

"Where are your keys?" She asks back, not planning on doing something nice without putting up a fight.

"I lost them," I lie, hoping that would be enough, although undoubtedly it wouldn't be.

"Bullshit," Hana laughs back, "You got suspended again didn't you? Mom took them, right?" She's laughing at me now, having easily figured everything out.

"Yeah…" I grumble, figuring it pointless to lie. "Just give me your keys, okay? I'm taking Hinata out into town and I'd prefer not to walk seven miles."

"Oh, so you and Hinata are…?" Hana asked giggling slightly.

"We're just friends," I bark back quickly. "Look, just give me the keys. She's moving and she's really depressed and I want to do something nice for her."

"Oh, she's moving? That's too bad," Hana mocked, knowing this obviously would be a soft spot for me. "So what would you do for me if I give you the keys?"

"I already am doing something for you. I'm not telling anyone you're here," I reply, hoping she'll just give up already. "If you don't give me the keys I'll just have to go tell everyone you're back." I still don't quite understand why she would care if people knew she was here, but if it got me the car keys it didn't matter to me.

"Fine, I'll give you the keys," She conceded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a key ring with the car key and a few others as well. She removed the car key from the ring and tossed it to me.

"Thanks," I say in a somewhat sarcastic manner. I turn to leave, it's getting late now and Hinata would probably be waiting.

"Kiba," Hana said right as I walked out the door. "Try and be safe."

I scoff at this, "Since when have you cared if I stay safe?"

"Kiba," She continues, getting serious now. "Please be careful."

"Yeah, yeah," I respond, "I'll be as careful as I always am."

I walk out the door now and hop into my car, turning it on and revving the engine a few times before taking off towards Hinata's house. It was kind of strange for Hana to tell me to be careful but I didn't pay much mind to it, she was probably just trying to screw with my head.

I arrived at Hinata's house not too long after. She ran out of her front door almost as soon as I pulled up and got into the passengers seat. She still looked rather depressed, hopefully I would be able to remedy that at least a little by the end of the night.

It was seven miles to town. With my driving we made it there in about ten minutes. I parked the car on a side street just outside of town and Hinata and I made our way into the busy streets. It was a Friday night so there were a lot of people out in town. Hinata and I just walked through the streets for a while, making small talk occasionally but for the most part just remaining quite.

I spent almost all of the night trying to think of something that I could say that would just snap her out of her depression, but my genius failed me. If I were good with words I wouldn't have to resolve all my conflicts with my fists. The whole night I just wanted to reach over and hug her, but I knew that wouldn't help her much in this situation. She would probably feel like she was hurting Naruto, even though it was just a simple hug, and she would become even more conflicted.

We stopped eventually to get something to eat and then stopped after to get some dessert. I had stolen some money from my mom's wallet last night after she went to sleep so I paid for everything, hoping that even that small jester would lighten Hinata's spirits.

By the time we were done with everything it had gotten extremely late and the crowds in the streets started to thin. Hinata and I continued to walk up and down the streets; talking and enjoying what could be one of our last nights together.

"God, these things are so stupid," I say, ripping a poster off a pole as we walked by. The government put up a ton of posters like these, things trying to make you afraid or make you want to work for them. It was just a bunch of propaganda. "I mean just listen to this. 'Your government needs-'"

Boom! I was cut short as not fifty meters behind where Hinata and I were walking, the town hall exploded.

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Hope you liked it. Review please! Again, not sure if I'm gonna update and if I do it won't be all that frequently because I want to work on my other fic right now because that has more readers.

Hmm, I think I'm gonna have Shino in the next chapter, although he'll prob be one of the first truly OOC characters (although Kiba's sister was pretty OOC this chapter).


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: So yeah, this fic really hasn't been getting many hits at all. Guess the summary sucks. Thank you to those that read and especially to those that reviewed though. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this fic, I just wanted to at least have this chapter so I could have messed up Shino.

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There's this ringing in my ears and it won't go away. This incessant screech that's piercing my skull. I'm disoriented. Dust is everywhere, blocking my vision and stifling my breathing. I'm trying to make sense of things but I can't. Where am I? What just happened? My ears are still ringing but my visions coming back now. I look around trying to get oriented again and… 

Hinata!

I'm frantic now, shaking off the haze and looking manically around for any site of her. I see her on her knees on the side of the walkway, just as disoriented as me. I'm at her side in an instant, helping her to her feet. I think she's crying. Her eyes are red and closed tight and she's wiping them; although it may be just because of the dust from the explosion.

I lead us away as quick as possible. I steal a glance back at the smoldering building behind us, I'm curious but I have other things on my mind now; I can find out what happened later. We head back to my car on the outside of the town. The streets seem more crowded now. It's late at night and the town was relatively barren but now it seems packed. There are a few people like me and Hinata that are scrambling away from the scene but the majority of people crowding the street are bystanders, coming out to see what all the noise was about. Some are asking questions but I ignore them, all I want to do is get out of here.

When we reach my car my ears are still ringing and I still feel like I'm in some sort of haze. I help Hinata into her seat and then jump in as well before speeding off. Hinata has been quite the entire time, she seems like she's in shock. Her clothes are all dirty and tattered as well as her hair and face. I look down and find my clothes in a similar state. I look into the rear view mirror and find I have a few scrapes on my face and my hair is covered with dust. I had been too busy getting away before that I hadn't had time to clean myself off.

Once we're far enough away I start wiping dust and dirt off of my clothes and face, letting it fall onto the floor in front. I look worriedly over to Hinata who still hasn't said a word or so much as moved. I give her a gentle tap on the shoulder and she looks at me, her eyes even more barren and cloudy then usual. I wipe some dirt from her face and fix her hair a little but she still remains silent. I can't think of anything to say so I turn back to the road and continue driving.

After a little more driving we arrive at her house. I put the car into park in front of her car and lean back a little, trying to calm my nerves. She doesn't get out; she just sits there still, starring blankly ahead. I was hesitant to bring her back to her house looking like this but I didn't know what else to do. I figured it would probably be best to get her back as soon as possible and just have her dad a little furious with me then waiting and having her dad on the verge of murdering me.

We wait a little longer still, sitting in silence in the car, and she still doesn't get out. I don't rush her, I actually prefer for her to stay here, so at least I can know she is safe. Even though there was no way I could have for seen this happening I know that Hinata's dad will still blame me for it. That's just the kind of person he is.

"Are you okay?" I ask, breaking the silence that had spanned from the explosion until now. I see her lips move but I don't hear any words, my ears are still ringing and her voice is too quite to hear over it. "What?"

"I'm fine," She whispers; louder now so that I can hear. I know she doesn't completely mean that, she's just saying what I want to hear. "Just a little surprised."

"Do you want me to come in with you?" I ask, thinking maybe dealing with her dad would be easier if I were there to take the brunt of his anger. I know she won't accept my offer, she's too nice to drag me into something like this, but I'll ask anyway every time.

"It's okay, I can go in alone," She replies predictably. She still doesn't get out though. I think she still needs a moment to recuperate. Again, I don't rush her, it's not like I have anywhere to be. I'm not sure how my mom will react to this. She'll probably get mad at me for taking the car when I'm not supposed to drive and maybe will feign being worried about me nearly getting killed, although she'll probably just shrug it off in the end and forget about it by morning. I'm not sure how my sister will react either. In all honesty, I could care less; she'll be gone in a day or two anyway.

"I should go now," Hinata says, finally coming back down to reality. She wipes off some more dirt from her clothes and hair and opens the door. "Thanks, it was fun until…yeah."

I laugh at this and watched her get out of the car. I wait until she's in her house before I leave. Even after she's gotten inside I wait outside for a couple seconds. I take a few deep breathes and glance over at Hinata's house one last time before putting the car in gear and heading back to my house.

When I arrive home my mom's car is back in the driveway but all the lights are off. I park the car at the end of the driveway and get out. I don't plan on going home just yet. Instead I walk down the street some and end up at my neighbor's house. It's late but he'll be up, he's more of a night person anyway. I head for the back door, the one the leads to his basement, where he lives. I knock once and wait exactly five seconds before knocking again twice.

Moments later I hear footsteps on the other side of the door and see an eye block the light of the peep hole. A few seconds after that and I hear the sound of countless locks and bolts being undone before finally, the doors creeks open.

Now I'm starring face to face with him, Shino. We've been neighbors for a while, when Hinata moved out, he moved in. We weren't friends at first; he was just too strange and creepy for me. But my mom said I should be nice to him because she didn't think he had any friends so I started to talk to him some. I didn't really become friends with him at first; he was still too weird and he was paranoid about everything. But like my mom said, he didn't have any other friends so he started showing up at my door wanting to do something and eventually we became something like friends.

When he opens the door he doesn't greet me, he just leaves the door open and turns back around, heading back into the house. I walk in after him and shut the door behind me, bolting just one of the locks. I never really saw why he had so many locks. The front door only had one so if someone wanted to break in they could just go through there. I follow Shino to his room where he's sitting on his bed reading some tattered book.

I sit down on a chair in the corner of the room and try to relax for a few more moments. My nerves are still shot and even though it's been at least half an hour my ears are still ringing. Looking down at myself I see my clothes are still incredibly dirty and I have a couple scratches on my arms that are still trickling blood. I grab a tissue from a box Shino has in his room and start to wipe some of the blood off although I probably should bandage them soon or else they'll probably get infected because of all the dust that's getting in them.

After a while Shino looks up from his book and looks over at me. I know he notices what I look like and he starts to look me over, trying to piece together what happened to me before he asks. That's something Shino has always taken pride, knowing everything. Well he obviously doesn't know _everything_ but he is smart and he is very good at piecing things together. He's definitely smarter then me, although that doesn't take much, according to my mom I'm practically retarded and it would take three of me to be as smart as Akamaru.

"So you blew something up?" Shino says after studying me for long enough. Like I said, he's pretty good at figuring stuff out. "So what happened?"

This is the main reason I came here before I went home. I'm not really afraid of what my mom or sister will say; I just knew Shino would want to know what happened. Shino is kind of a weird kid; he's incredibly paranoid and thinks everything is a conspiracy.

"Why don't you go see for yourself?" I joke, laughing as he gives me an annoyed look. That's another thing about him: he's a shut in. He has been for nearly two years, I don't know what's going through his head but ever since the last election I think he just lost it and couldn't handle the outside world anymore so now he spends all his time locked in his house. The only time I ever see him go outside is when he comes over to my house maybe once a month in the middle of the night because he needs to talk or something like that. I like to joke about his weird situation, although I don't think he appreciates it.

"Well you won't believe what happened," I say, serious now. I tell him everything that happened, from when Hinata and I first went into town till when I arrived here. He listens intently although he doesn't show any excitement. That's another thing about Shino; he is a very calm and almost emotionless person. I don't think I've ever seen him laugh or yell at someone.

"Sounds like a-" Shino starts to say but I interrupt him.

"A conspiracy, yeah I know," I say. I really don't know what he's thinking when he says that, what exactly his 'conspiracies' are, but I knew he would say that anyway. Shino lays back on his bed now and is starring at the ceiling. He's probably coming up with some highly improbable complex plot on how the government is trying to fuck with us. I don't know how he got so paranoid but it probably had something to do with his parents who, while not quite as messed up as him, were still pretty paranoid.

"You want some?" Shino asked as he reached over into a drawer in the nightstand and pulled out a small bag. This is probably another reason for his intense paranoia, his incessant drug use. I don't know where he picked it up, he doesn't talk to anybody besides me for the most part and I never gave him any. Well, however he picked it up, he smokes now, and a lot. He's got a room connected to his own that he keeps locked most of the time but I've seen into it a couple of times and he's got I don't know how much marijuana plant hanging there. I guess that means he grows his own but I've never seen the actual plants, although based on how much I've seen hanging up he has to have a lot of them. I really hope he doesn't smoke it all though, because he has a ton and smoking that much can't be healthy.

"No, I'm good," I reply. I don't think it'd be the best thing to arrive back home when my moms already going to be mad at me smelling like pot smoke. "Well I've got to go now; I just thought you should know what happened. Tell me if you hear anything." I continue. That's another reason why I told him. He tends to hear about before I do, although I don't know how because as far as I know I'm one of the only people he talks to.

Shino nods and I walk out of the room and out the door. I hear him bolting the locks behind me as I walk back towards my house. It's pretty late now and I'm hoping my moms asleep, I'm exhausted and I just kind of want to go to sleep. As quietly as possible I make it back to my house and unlock and open the door. I make my way to the stairs and curse as the first step creaks loudly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Kiba?"

I turn to face my mom who had just made her way from the kitchen to behind me on the stairs. Should have figured trying to sneak in would be pointless. My mom is sort of a night person and she rarely went to sleep this early.

"I was just at Shino's, I'm going to bed," I say. Technically that was true; I just skipped the whole part about stealing the car and going into town before.

"I told you, you couldn't use the car," My mom said, getting right to the point. "How did you get keys to it anyway?"

"I found them," I lied. "Where's Hana? I need to talk to her."

"What the hell do you mean? How the hell should I know where your sister is? She hasn't been home in years."

I knew instantly what Hana had done.

* * *

So review and tell me if you want me to continue. 


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